costa@returnnow.

org
http://returnnow.org
 Because understanding how:

Worldviews guide and confine thought

and
How the present culture‟s worldview
was formed

is the essential step in understanding the

strategy of the secular world against the
Body of Christ
 The following quotation by Charles Spurgeon
clearly reveals two major issues which have
been in contention ever since God began His
revelation in scripture.

 All Christians everywhere need to deal with

these daily in their lives.

 We will be looking at these 2 main issues.

“The gospel is like a caged lion. It
does not need to be defended, it
just needs to be let out of its
cage.”
“So shall My word be that goes forth
from My mouth; It shall not return to Me
void, But it shall accomplish what I
please, And it shall prosper in the thing
for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11 NKJV)
The gospel is not merely religious truth –
it is truth about the whole of reality. Once let
out of its cage the gospel cannot help but
become, by its nature, the chief power in
any kingdom.

It is self-sufficient for providing a

complete worldview. Nothing needs to
be added to it.
 BUT
IT HAS TO BE USED
AND PROCLAIMED!
 WORLDVIEW
is the object of battle
Sin is working in the world to hold the gospel
in a cage. Sin expresses its power through
worldview.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to

those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God.” (1
Corinthians 1:18 NKJV)
“A comprehensive conception or apprehension
of the world especially from a specific
standpoint”

“A set of pre-existing beliefs or opinions that

equip us to handle the information that the
world presents to us.”
 Everyone has a worldview.

 Worldview is like the lens in our eye. We do

not see it, but we see everything else by looking
through it. Worldview supplies the structural
framework, the foundations of the world that
we see.

 By using it we filter out, often subconsciously,

what is real and what is not.
 Worldview is a map of the universe that we all carry
around in our heads.

 The same object or declaration will have totally

different meaning to different people, according to
their pre-existing worldview.

 The problem is that sin has corrupted the lens, the

map, our whole unregenerate worldview!
To see how worldview can affect what we see
or hear, consider this verse from the Bible:

“Jesus answered and said to him, "Most

assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John 3:3 NKJV)
Now think about how each of the following
worldviews, or religions would interpret this
verse:

 Christianity
 Hinduism
 Secular Humanism (yes it is a religion)
“Jesus answered and said to him, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John 3:3 NKJV)

Now on what deeper underlying premises or

assumptions do these interpretations depend?
 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John 3:3 NKJV)

o The Christian worldview

o The Hindu worldview
o The Secular Humanist or materialist worldview
1. Materialism: the ultimate reality is matter, and
everything is reduced to material constituents.
2. Pantheism: the ultimate reality is a spiritual
force & the goal of meditation is to reconnect
with that spiritual oneness.
3. Darwinism: biology is ultimate, and
everything, even religion & morality, is
reduced to a product of Darwinian processes.
4. Empiricism: all knowledge is traceable
ultimately to sense data & anything not known
by sensation is unreal.
 Worldviews arise from a pre-existing set of
assumptions or premises.

 These could be the products of:

 Prejudice
 Culture
 Self-interest
 Divine revelation
 It is important to realize that in most cases, the
foundations, or premises, of a worldview are
not provable, but instead are subjective and
often in major conflict with reality.
 Take a group of world class scientists as an
example. They may be working together in a
nuclear lab, or with a particle accelerator. They
apply their intellectual gifts to their jobs, and in
their private lives they may be strong believers
in Jehovah God, New Age, or something else.
After work they may go to their temple to feed
their gods made of plaster, or get involved in a
Masonic rite. Their worldview is split. Each
part rests on a totally different set of premises
or assumptions.
 In each case, work & religion, they are using
the same intelligence. This intelligence is
guided by a different worldview at work, and a
different worldview in their personal lives.
These in turn rest on different premises.
 One set of premises supports their religious
worldview
 The other set of premises supports their
scientific worldview
 Is either worldview supported by reality?

 You may say yes to their scientific worldview.

But this answer in most cases would be
incorrect today. Distinction must be made
between faith in the scientific method, which is
not a worldview, and the worldview assumptions
of naturalistic science, which are based on
unproven and non-testable premises.

 This latter point is the subject of future

Foundations presentations.
 The most important question in life, then, is
what a person accepts as ultimate premises,
because they shape everything that follows.

 They determine the person‟s worldview, which

then guides them through life.
 As Christians, our faith in Christ is more
important than our belief in science, or
education, or family, etc..

 Because our faith in Christ provides the light

that illuminates our understanding and guides
our actions.

 This worldview is based on REVELATION,

and cannot be found by reason alone.

 The REVELATION of God is reality. This is our

premise.
 It is only after acceptance and testing that
experience proves or disproves a worldview.

 The premises in themselves may not be

provable. The proof is in their application.

 The application of the Revelation of God, the

Bible, to the world proves its validity as total
truth, because it leaves no aspect of reality
unexplained.

 Reality and God‟s revelation are in agreement.

 We have talked at length about worldview, its
function, and how it may be acquired.

 Now let‟s move onto the next section, which

deals with how worldview has been used to
put the gospel in a cage.
Marriage

Lifestyle and entertainment

 Education

Science

Government

Church
No part of our lives is left untouched!
 •We know the objective

•We know the battles

We should also know the

weapon

Because we may be part of it

unknowingly
 THE SPLITTING OF TRUTH
INTO PUBLIC & PRIVATE DOMAINS

 Truth has been divided into two spheres:

 Religion (upper story)
 Science & truth (lower story)
 Religion is put in the private upper story,
where no-one goes except in their private life
 Personal values
 Choice
 Personal preference
 Beliefs
 Science and truth are kept in the lower story,
where public life takes place
 Truth
 Reality
 Everything here is supposedly “value free” and
“neutral”
 This division is the single most potent weapon
for delegitimizing the biblical perspective in
public life today.
The real weapon is not science, nor Darwinism, but
something far more subtle, pervasive &
fundamental.
 By splitting religion away from the public
sphere, secularists can assure us that they
“respect” religion, while at the same time
denying that it has any relevance in the public
realm.
 Science does not rule out religious belief, as
long as it does not claim to be actual public
knowledge.
 Contrary to what some may expect, this
division of truth into private & public realm
did not originate with Darwinism, nor with the
industrial revolution, nor with the ascent of
science.
 The origin of this 2 story view of reality can be
traced directly back to Greek philosophy,
predating Christianity.
 Plato – dualism, matter inferior, form superior, real life
like reflections on the wall of a cave. This led to 2
storey view of reality.
 Further developed & refined by Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas
Aquinas & others through the ages.

 Dualism was reinforced which in turn led to a dualistic

view of Christian life also. (Gnosticism, many heresies).

 Eventually there came about speculation of a

naturalistic origin of the universe.

 The fact-value divide was then clinched in the late 19th

C. by Darwinism. The picture was completed by a
seemingly plausible naturalistic mechanism for
evolution.
 With Darwinism & a naturalistic worldview of
life & origins, the “upper story” was cut off
from any connection to the realm of history,
science, reason. Evolutionary forces
supposedly produced the human mind and so
morality & religion are no longer transcendent.
They are merely ideas that have evolved in the
human mind. They are no longer real and have
no eternal significance.
 They are now the product of choice only.
 Say „Hello‟ post-modernism.
  What we hear about the UPPER STORY
(religious belief)

 “We respect your beliefs”

 “You can keep your personal values”
 “That is an individual choice for yourself”
 “Religious/spiritual belief”
 “Praiseworthy, but need to grow out of it as part of
maturity”
 “Your beliefs need to be set aside in the ‘real world’”
 What we hear about the LOWER STORY
(naturalistic science)
 “science has discovered that ...”
 “the way all rational people think”
 “everyone knows”
 “this is the way we think today”
 „Our mandate to teach is “neutral” of religious belief’
 „Naturalistic science is “value free”‟
 “Religion is in conflict with science”
 “Religion has no place in the laboratory”
 CHURCHES HAVE ELEMENTS OF SECULAR
WORLDVIEW
 Is it any wonder many Christian youth decline
towards atheism upon leaving the home?
 Almost expected because they are going into the „real world‟.
 Parents & Church: are they covering up evolution? Guilt from
silence on issue.
 No teaching on how to detect & analyze worldviews.
 Is it any wonder adult Christians are so biblically
immature?
 More & more preaching focussed on „values‟ & ethics. The full
counsel of God not preached, limits put on God‟s Word (the
cage).
 Many secular techniques & values used in day to day Church
life & administration, etc.
 We often don‟t see that what we may be
dealing with in the secular world, disguised as
„fact‟, or as presented as „value free‟, or „non-
religious‟, is indeed a competing worldview or
religion.

 We may then unknowingly absorb this

worldview into our lives.
 A belief system can be classified as a complete
worldview if it tries to provide explanations
for:
 Creation or origins
 The major problem facing mankind (the fall)
 The solution (redemption)
 Christianity

CREATION FALL REDEMPTION

God created the Mankind‟s

heavens & the rebellion & entry The Cross
earth of sin
 Marxism

CREATION FALL REDEMPTION

Revolution!
Overthrow the
Self-creating, self- oppressors &
The rise of private
regenerating recreate the
property
matter original paradise
of primitive
communism
 New Age

CREATION FALL REDEMPTION

By being reunited
with the
The Absolute, the
Our sense of Universal
One, a Universal
individuality Spiritual Essence
Spiritual Essence
from which we all
came
 Scientific Materialism

CREATION FALL REDEMPTION

Spontaneous
creation of the
universe and life By religion and Through science
driven by blind, superstition and reason
directionless,
random chance
o In the public sphere, worldview is the battle
zone
o The upper-story lower-story split is the
weapon that has marginalized the biblical
worldview
o The current scientific, atheistic worldview is
not the result of brilliant science, but has its
origin in personal bias long predating
Christianity and the scientific revolution
o Its is easy to detect & analyze competing
worldviews
o The full gospel must be liberated from the cage
imposed by our culture (it is our weapon)
o Are we part of the problem?
 What should we do?
 We must remove the divide between faith in private
and public life

 We must live out a total Christian worldview

 Only by doing so will the cultural worldview be

changed, because worldview cannot be legislated. It
must come from within each individual first.
 Accept the Bible as total truth. This will equip us to:
 Live so that we honour God and express a Christian
worldview in every facet of our lives.
 Show the world that the Christian worldview is the
only one that works anywhere, anytime, for
anybody.
 Always insist that the Christian worldview fully
describes and explains reality, because it is reality.
 Daily time in the Word & in prayer.
 Understanding that the Cross not only gives us
salvation, but also has power for our ongoing
sanctification. This is not done by self-effort.
 Trusting God that His Word is sufficient and can
provide the answer to all questions and any heresy. It
is total truth.
 Concerning the adversary, to disallow access to our
persons and homes through TV, lifestyle, etc..